Oct
21
Newt destroys his credibility
October 21, 2009 | 10 Comments
I have always been a big fan of Newt Gingrich, and would have happily supported him had he chosen to run for the presidency last year. However his support for the RINO* New York Congressional candidate Dede Scozzafava is inexcusable.
“I endorsed the Republican who has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association, opposes the Obama health plan, signed the ‘no-tax-increase’ pledge, and supports a comprehensive energy plan like I do,” says Gingrich.
Third-party candidates like conservative Doug Hoffman, Scozzafava’s challenger, often serve only to divide the GOP, says Gingrich. “Just look at what’s happening in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race,” he says, pointing to the campaign of independent candidate Chris Daggett, who has siphoned support from Republican candidate Chris Christie. “What’s happening in New York and in New Jersey should be a sober warning to every purist in this country.”
“If you seek to be a perfect minority, you’ll remain a minority,” says Gingrich.
While he was busy praising Scozzafava he failed to mention other great qualities – like lying about reporters after you call the cops on them for simply asking you questions. Oh, and who can forget her pro-choice, anti-traditional marriage, ACORN-friendly bina fides? Yeah, some standard bearer you’re sucking up to there, Newt. Perhaps you were too busy cozying up to Al Sharpton and Nancy Pelosi to notice, but Scozzafava offers nothing to conservative Republicans, and considering this is one of the safest districts in the state for the GOP, there was no political utility in nominating such a left-leaning candidate.
Michelle Malkin further takes Newt to the woodshed for his argument ad Reagan. Michelle quotes Reagan:
A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers.
Newt looks awful here, and he’s going to look even worse when Scozzafava goes down in flames.
* I’ve never really liked the term, but this is one case where it most certainly applies.
Comments
10 Comments so far
Agreed! However, in all fairness, the conservative candidate running in NY-23 sucks (maybe a little to blunt, but it is true).
When Newt falls (frankly, he’s been sliding for some time now) you simply can’t hide the complete party meltdown any longer.
Admin, would you care to explain why Mr. Hoffman, who has no history of misappropriating public funds as he has not before held public office, needs to be spoken of with that sort of disrespect?
What Gingrich is neglecting to note is that this is a special election and the candidate was selected not by the usual process but by a weighted vote of the local Republican county chairmen according to procedures in the Election Law. This whole train wreck is a consequence of the county chairmen applying opaque criteria which resonate poorly with the attentive electorate. (My suspicion would be that interpersonal relations and favors done and chits being called in are at the bottom of all this).
New York pols are accustomed to a demoralized and passive electorate. However, it should have occurred to them that this might happen. In 1998 and 2000, Sherwood Boehlert was challenged in a primary by David Vickers, a schoolteacher theretofore unknown outside the small town district which employed him. Mr. Vickers won 46% of the vote in 2000 against a nine-term incumbent; I doubt Vickers had 10c to spend on his campaign. Sometimes, when the supply shows up, the demand shows up.
Republicans like Boehlert have been quite common in loci where the Democratic Party is run by shady characters repellant to bourgeois mugwumps. (Utica at one time was terribly mobbed-up). It is curious that Scozzafava has been able to make a career in the North Country; 85% of the population up there live in rural areas and small towns; the Democratic Party tends to lose and is not run by the ghost of Carmine deSapio either.
I turn on my television and discover the Democratic candidate has discovered his Muse. On his authority I know that what America needs is not a good 5c cigar but more state manipulation of the market in milk and butter and cheese, because your local dairy farmer is not getting a ‘fair price’, or whatever. A congressional district generally has about 250,000 households. If the figures the local director of Co-operative Extension gave me for her county apply across the district, there are about 6,500 farmers therein, many of whom are not engaged in dairy farming. Glad Mr. Owens is looking out for us.
@artdeco
I had the opportunity to listen to Mr. Hoffman present himself as the true conservative running for NY-23. It was bad. Rambling, shaky, slow, and seemingly uninformed are nice ways to describe his short speech.
You are correct, to my knowledge, that he has no history of misappropriating public funds since he hasn’t held public office. In fact, has run a successful family business (A primary factor in giving him the means to run), which bumped him up several notches in my ranking (yes, up to “suck”).
That said, still not an excuse for Newt’s support of the Republican candidate.
When you listen to speeches in Congress on occasions of note (say, the resolution to authorize the first Gulf War or the debates over the TARP program last year), you realize ours is not an age where eloquence is cultivated or rewarded. That is regrettable; it is also pervasive. It is quite unusual that you encounter a politician whose mode of expression is any better than banal.
Throughout his career Gingrich, in many ways one of the more brilliant individuals to ever sit in Congress, has made decisions that have been completely counterproductive. (Remember the airplane fight with Bill Clinton, or the way he allowed Clinton to play the government shutdown in the nineties like a fiddle. For the past year Gingrich has been waging an effective campaign to increase his support among conservatives. Now he throws that all away on behalf of a liberal Democrat in Republican disguise who has no chance of winning in any case. It is this type of inexplicable idiocy on his part that has caused me to always doubt his judgment and the convictions he purports to hold.
Newt looks awful here, and he’s going to look even worse when Scozzafava goes down in flames
I’ve told people that Gingrich has an excellent++ idea-factory mind, but that he should be placed in a closet to write ideas and NEVER be allowed outside to speak and play.
When will conservatives learn that dealing with the devil does not pay off? What did Rick Santorum gain by supporting Arlen Spector against Toomey 5 years ago? 5 years down the road, the Republicans have lost both seats.
I wonder about Sen Brownback’s support of Kathleen Sebilius for HHS secretary. He thinks it will open up the governor’s chair for him. That remains to be seen.
And now Newt has just hurt himself in every single Republican primary debate, should he decide to run in 2012. Although that might be a blessing in disguise, I can’t really see him winning a general election, even though I was a fan.
Dr. Gingrich is an intelligent man who thinks it the business of political parties to promote policies and programs. That is the good part (and in contrast to Capitol Hill apparatchiks like Trent Lott). Regrettably, there is much about him that suggest the caricature of the used-car salesman (not to mention the narcissism and the appalling domestic life).
You got to learn to play party politics somewhere along the way to becoming Speaker of the House. In this case, Newt was wrong to line up with the party. That doesn’t make him any less valuable a resource; it just means we can’t trust him 100% – but there’s no one in politics who meets that standard.